Taking a world tour without leaving gym

Saturday

Dec 8, 2012 at 1:46 PM

Cynthia Grau

Ever dreamt about going to Paris for the day? Or how about checking out the Great Pyramid? The cultural fair at St. Mary’s School Friday was a great chance to do that without leaving Pontiac.Marilyn Hoke, who teaches social studies for sixth through eighth grade at St. Mary’s School, said that the program, which has been going strong for nearly a decade, fills the purpose of a multi-disciplinary project for its seventh grade students.“The teacher that used to be in seventh grade and I decided we wanted to do an inter-disciplinary project. She would write the paper in language arts class. It is also connected with computers because they were typing with computers. In social studies, we would research the countries and make the boards and talk about costumes and food and put it all together for the public,” Hoke explained.She said all seventh graders are involved and they each choose a country to research and represent, with no two students researching the same country.“They really do a good job at researching the material,” she said.Parents are also really involved in the projects, helping their children make the food, working on costumes and setting up their projects.“I really enjoy doing this project. The kids have always done a great job and sometimes you don’t really know if it’s all going to come together but it does come together in the end and I’m really proud of them,” Hoke said.The students start the project early in the school year, as the research and work that goes into it is very extensive.“We start this at the very beginning of the school year, about the second day of school, they choose their country in order to get started. It’s very thorough. We usually have this the first Friday in December,” the teacher said.The students seemed to enjoy answering questions at their respective booths. Colorful costumes were worn and different foods were offered from all the different countries.Carter Graves, who researched Mongolia, said that he enjoyed the project and learned a lot of interesting facts, especially about the country’s rainfall.“I’ve learned that Mongolia doesn’t get much rain. It only gets about four inches a year,” Graves said.South Africa was researched by Penelope Wilder, who had genuine South African currency, photographs and other items she herself owns.“I learned a lot about their landforms and their resources. They have a lot of major landforms there. They’re all so beautiful. It’s really cool,” Wilder said. Of her artifacts, she added,”A lot of my stuff is authentic and really from South Africa. I’ve had these things for a long time. I have real pictures and a whole bunch of different artifacts.”Olivia Muir’s booth was busy. While wearing a beret and a bright red scarf, she was also offering French fare.“I have sparkling grape juice, pirouette cookies filled with chocolate, chocolate and dark chocolate and hazelnut truffles and Muenster and Brie cheese,” Muir said.While Muir said that the project took a lot of work, she really enjoyed it, learning details of the country that she didn’t know beforehand.“I learned about the famous landforms and how populated the Paris is and how popular it is. I also learned the history of their government and old leaders,” she said.Other countries represented included Ireland, Egypt, China, Japan, Germany, Brazil and the Bahamas.